Paintbrushes
by cherryvvoid
Summary: If there was anything she could never have predicted, it was this. SI-as-half-Uchiha-fem!Sai. AU. Danzo is a main character despite not being listed!
1. Within The Roots of a Tree

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

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At the - assumed - age of three, the young girl named "Sai" knew exactly where and who she was and the very fact used to _terrify_ her.

Wide black eyes stared listlessly forward and she forced herself to hold absolutely still as she gave her last thought some careful consideration.

Correction, she idly realized, it _still_ terrified her.

But, thankfully, that fear didn't carry enough presence to call for any sort of action of any particular intent.

It wasn't enough for her go try anything..._untoward_ because, blessedly, fear made her _cautious_, not _stupid_.

Sai liked to think she had gotten used to her situation by some degree. If anything she could compare how she felt to Stockholm syndrome because to a certain degree, that was _exactly_ what it was.

The robed figure of Shimura Danzo seemed to be a beacon glowing out of the corner of her eyes but she refused to glance over. Keeping her attention focused solely on the spar taking place between the two young children, Sai _observed_.

The sounds of flesh hitting flesh and near silent grunts of pain filtered into one ear and out the other. She had learned a long time ago how to tune out the more..._scarring_ noises seeing as she would never get any sleep otherwise. The months she suffered with insomnia spoke volumes.

Hearing the telling sound of a body hitting the ground, Sai watched as the blonde haired girl attempted to push herself up off the floor and she almost made it. But the calm voice that cut through the harsh panting in the room drew everyone's attention like a moth to a flame and they all turned in unison.

"Enough." Danzo drawled, his dark eye watching the two children dispassionately. "Yon*, exit the ring, Shi* enter."

Nodding once she didn't utter a single thing as she moved into the circle. Her body was bruised, the marks from her earlier battles clear as day on her pale skin but she shrugged through the trembling of her muscles to slide into her stance.

The boy who had beat Yon - number four - was quick, she would give him that. He was fast and had a particular amount of strength behind his hits.

Sai barely heard the Hajime declaring the match before she was moving forward.

He was _fast_ but she _understood_ and Sai didn't have the time or the energy to waste.

So with her first strike she had already won.

And not to be misunderstood Sai might not have taken him down with a single punch - the hours spent fighting weighed her down, not to mention her sparring form was laughable - but from the moment she approached him she had been successfully controlling the fight.

Standing above the - finally - downed child, Sai turned around and kneeled. She had made it as painless and as quick as she could, it was a small mercy for the both of them. Sai had already learned the lesson of what happened when she refused to finish a fight.

It wasn't pleasant.

"Very good." Danzo said but she didn't allow herself to relax, there was always a catch to everything this man said. "San* enter, Ichi* exit."

Sai felt herself begin to tense - she had learned to expect such things - but she forced herself to relax. Sai knew why Danzo kept pitting her against this boy and she knew why this boy made it his life's mission to win in every fight against her.

One received a lot of animosity within the "unemotional" ranks of ROOT when viewed as the favorite of Danzo. Although never mind the fact that it wasn't so much as _favoritism_ but the overwhelming desire to have his own blood kin be stronger than the rest.

After all, Danzo-ojii-sama didn't take failure lightly but try as she might, dodge as quick as she could, hit as hard as she dared, Sai wasn't good enough to evade the strike that sent her tumbling to her knees and into unconsciousness.

She was out before she could even catch sight of the ground.

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**This will obviously be an AU as you can see by how Sai is related to Danzo. I'm also making Sai an Uchiha.**

**There will be changes to the time line based on the fact that Sai is Danzo's grandchild. Please be respectful of my creative license.**

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**Edit: 7/20/16**

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**Finally getting back into this story.**


	2. Faces

Sai found it most ironic that she - a former art student - managed to land herself a spot in the single most artistic body in all the elemental nations.

She _also_ found it a strange turn that she was put into such a position that required the lack of emotion, considering it was her job to put the latter onto a canvas. Not to mention that as a human being, it was only natural she feel inclined to well..._feel_.

Everyone in ROOT - as per the conditioning - were indifferent to human affection and the interactions she experienced were little to none outside of her sparring partners and Danzo. But regardless of her drab existence, Sai considered herself lucky to still have art in her life.

In the middle of dragging her pencil down the blank page of her sketch book that her grandfather allowed her to have, Sai was glad she could keep this small luxury. Even if she had to use her skills for more practical things before anything else.

Ever since Danzo had discovered her miasma of drawings she kept in her scrolls, he had been training Sai in perfecting her recollective skills.

He had taken one considering look at her art before he seemingly came to a decision. One she could tell would equally to keep her content and provide his soldier with a new skill set.

"It seems you've taken after your mother in more ways than one." He had said and despite her lessons, Sai could feel surprise jump onto her face at the mention and knew there'd be remedial training for that slip up. "We'll see if you are also able to be taught in the same way Kiryu was."

It hadn't been much information but it was enough to know that her mother had some skill with a paintbrush. Sai liked to think that maybe Danzo was letting her draw because of some attachment to her deceased daughter but eh, the man was an enigma.

So that had been that and here Sai was attempting to sketch a perfect profile of a random villager her grandfather assigned to her. She had only gotten the main features down and was trying to drag the woman's visage back into the center of her mind so she could finish the rest.

Granted Sai would think she'd focus better if she weren't meeting the Hokage for the first time. She was a _very_ stressed child when she thought about it and she was handling it as well as she possibly could.

"Hiruzen," Her grandfather introduced primly, one hand sweeping back to gesture at her form. "this is my granddaughter, Shimura Sai."

Slipping her drawing utensils back into her satchel, Sai gave a formal bow and smile.

"Hokage-sama." She said in her perfectly neutral - and respectful - voice, taking note of the facial expression the old man was broadcasting. He seemed awfully surprised but she was sure her grandfather must have mentioned her.

"So," The peaceful - perhaps too peaceful - old man drawled from behind his folded hands. "this is Kiryu's daughter eh?"

Ah, so she reminded him of her mother. Sai flashed him a placid, warm toned smile and was rewarded with the slight furrow of his brow.

"Yes, I can see where she inherited that from." The Hokage muttered after taking in the smile that was apparently signature to the woman who birthed her, but Sai thought it was rather creditable to anyone in ROOT who wasn't good enough at faking it yet.

Leaning forward the Hokage smiled at her and Sai resisted the urge to shift away from how sincere it was but the faint underlying suspicion kept her in place. Ah, so despite being a child, she was a child of Danzo's and maybe that suspicion wasn't for her, but it was nice to know he was still wary. Or rather, it was nice to know where she stood on his scale of trustworthiness.

Or maybe she was reading this all wrong and the look in his eyes was something else entirely, but she was still a novice when it came to things of this variety so she couldn't take much of the blame.

So Sai smiled back, using the easy childish grin from when she wasn't who she was now and bowed once again.

"It was very nice to meet you Sai-san." Sarutobi said and she nodded in agreement. It was an interesting thing to meet the God of Shinobi.

"Likewise Hokage-sama."

And thus Sai was dismissed after some banal chatter between the two older men feeling as if that encounter had been lacking but happy to be out from under the oppressive atmosphere. Being immersed in her grandfather's aura on a daily basis was enough for her.

Danzo had stayed behind to have a meeting and Sai was more or less given the green light to get to know as much of the village as she could in person.

Well, given the green light to wander around with an "ANBU" guard at her tail.

She already knew all the landscape from the layouts her grandfather made her memorize but it wasn't the same as seeing them life size.

Ignoring her...guard Sai knew this was the beginning of her becoming more entangled with the public face of the village. Danzo wouldn't have introduced her to the Hokage if he didn't want her to interact with people, she could have followed behind the canon!Sai and not have came into the picture until Shippuden.

Not to mention her grandfather had already told her the parameters of letting her become inclusive within the Leaf. Soon she'd be at the Academy and from there she would keep her eyes on possible ROOT candidates, the Uchiha, and Jinchuuriki.

It was strange, Sai decided, to think of Naruto - the little blond boy from the anime she had watched - as simply the host to the demon fox but that's really all he was to her and nothing more. Now, she didn't think the word Jinchuuriki with disdain or hatred because it was just a simple fact. Like saying she was Danzo's granddaughter or that the Fire Country housed Konoha within its borders.

It was nothing personal but then again, nothing in ROOT done by the agents ever really was.

Taking out her sketchbook she resumed her profile of the woman and even was trying her hand at weaving through the crowds using only her senses to feel where everything was. No one - her grandfather - could blame her for not using her time wisely.

Carefully filling in the woman's hair and shoulder lines Sai thought she was doing a pretty good job navigating the sea of people and was feeling pretty content with her progress.

That was until she rammed drawing pad first into the person in front of her.

Staring downward at the now marred sketch of the woman - it was unusable with that heavy pencil line cutting through her features - she could feel the disdain manifesting clear as day on her face despite her conditioning and that made her even more irritated.

Glaring upwards with a miniscule frown on her round face she met the black eyes of someone she knew well from the files inside of ROOT.

Uchiha Itachi was just as intimidating as she thought he would be and it was making her uncomfortable.

Sai dropped her expression and forced a fluid smile onto her face to hide the uneasiness. She didn't want to tangle with anything having to do with him just yet.

"Ah, sorry for running into you I wasn't paying much attention to where I was walking." She said apologetically, waiting for him to reply so that she could make her escape but he seemed content to just stare at her...hair?

Resisting the urge to reach up to smooth down her wily hair - it had grown out again and whenever it grew out it curled - Sai cocked her head to the side.

"Uchiha-san?"

Knowing she had snapped him out whatever stupor he had been in but he didn't show it Itachi glanced down, opened his mouth and-

The small body ramming into his legs cut him off.

Internally cursing the circumstances Sai knew better than to walk away. She needed her relations with this clan to be pristine if she wanted to be able to keep an eye on it. ROOT didn't take kindly to failure and Sai found neither did she.

"I found you Itachi-nii!" A tiny male voice chirped and Sai blinked when she caught sight of the youngest Uchiha heir's adoring face. He was her physical age which was odd enough to realize when she could clearly see the differences in how they acted.

It made her feel awkward to see such blatant immaturity.

And honestly, meeting two Uchiha was enough for Sai, her mission to watch them hadn't even started yet so she didn't have a reason to associate with them at the moment. But nevertheless another one of them came out of the wood works in the form of one Uchiha Shisui.

Her first thought - surprisingly - was that she wasn't the only one whose hair suffered the curse of the curl.

Her second - unsurprisingly - was that she was going to get real tired, real quick of everyone pointing out how much she looked like an Uchiha.

She just knew it, especially if the slack jawed way the newest clan addition was staring at her was any indication. Not to mention she could clearly hear the spare Uchiha heir "whisper" ask his brother if she was of any relation to them.

Deciding it was in her best interest at this point to take the initiative and try to establish a pre-existing connection that she would take full advantage of later, Sai inclined her head and introduced herself.

"I'm sorry Uchiha-san but I am no one of such importance to you, I am Shimura Sai." She smiled sweetly. "How do you do?"

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**Edit: 7/20/16**


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